Pioneer gave up producing flat TVs and buried the LaserDisc, but the company seems to still believe in Blu-ray. Yesterday, Pioneer Japan announced a total of three new Blu-ray players [JP], covering the low-end and high-end segments.
Costing $300, the BDP-120 (pictured) is the cheapest of the three new models. Strangely, it features a Kuro-Link interface (next to HDMI/USB/Ethernet and others). It supports BD Live and Deep Color (36bit) and 480/60i/480/60p/720/60p/1080/60i/1080/60p/1080/24p.
Pioneer also presented the BDP-320, which misses the Kuro Link but has a couple of features the BDP-120 doesn’t offer. For example, it supports Deep Color in 48bit and AVCREC, plays MP3s and offers PQLS (Precision Quartz Lock System) on two channels. The player will be priced at $450.
The BDP-LX52 comes with quite a hefty price tag: $880. It’s almost the same model as the BDP-320, but it features multi-channel PQLS.
All players will hit Japanese stores next month. Pioneer is yet to announce plans for overseas markets.
I saw what happened to Laserdisc; why doesn’t Pioneer’s support of BR make me feel better about its future?
Very good
The BDP-120FD and BDP-320FD will street in May in the US (they were unveiled at CES in January). As far as I am aware, the 320 will support KURO Link, but the 120 does not, so quite possibly either the press release you were looking at is incorrect, or the back panel photos were swapped or of preproduction models.
The USB port allows for literally unlimited storage capacity for BD Live extras, which no other manufacturer is offering at this time. You are no longer limited to optional brand-specific memory or internal memory, and can therein access BD Live content whenever you like without having to worry about deleting it to make room for future extras!
Rolf,
The press release in Japanese (link in my article) states the low-end model, the 120, has the Kuro-Link.
I just took a look at the very latest pre-release owner’s manuals, and it turns out BOTH the 120 and 320 models have KURO Link, so that clears THAT little mystery up! Thanks for pointing that out!
Screen Sleuth, LaserDisc lasted for more than 20 years, which is a heck of a run for ANY video format! Pioneer was a core developer of that technology, and it was heralded by many film directors and videophiles around the world as the ultimate video format (which it certainly was at the time). LD was the progenitor of the CD format, and heavily influenced the final form DVD took. Pioneer was very much involved in both of those formats as well from a software development and hardware development side.
So, that being said, as a core developer of the Blu-ray Disc format (Pioneer had the world’s first functional blue-violet laser optical disc technology after all), I think you can rest assured that our optical disc and audio/video expertise will continue to carry the BD format well into the future.